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Dar es Salaam. Tanzania has a vast hinterland that is endowed with a very big mass of navigable lakes around it, while on the east it is sheltered by the Indian Ocean coastline, that stretch a length of about 700 kilometres or so, from the north to the south. This scenario gives the country a unique advantage compared to other African countries which are not endowed with such abundant water bodies, as well as the access to the ocean.
From pre-historic times, apart from the use for agriculture, mankind has used water bodies as a medium of transportation that had enabled him to conquer many challenges--political, social and economic, among others.
Tanzania today continues to struggle to develop a modern transport network which will bring together its people, and facilitate further their social and economic aspirations, while enabling the country to participate fully and play a meaningful role in its foreign trade.
Developed transport networks are also expected to offer transit access to or from geographically land- locked countries, and which conveniently look at Tanzania to offer them a gateway to their foreign trade. It is on the basis of this fact that the country, as a member of the international community, and specifically being a signatory to the AU Charter under Article 17 on the Transit Trade of land- locked States, grants facilities and benefits to the landlocked countries through the use of its ports, hinterland infrastructure and equipment, including inland container depots, and applies non-discriminatory administrative, fiscal and customs measures in accordance with the charter.
The state of the national transport system
The current conditions of our national transportation systems on both the coastline, the surface as well as on the inland waterways, to say the least, have not been performing well as a system, in their totality over the last 10 years or so.
The railways have continued to register poor performance that is well below standards expected in bulk transportation of goods and passengers across the country. That role is now unfortunately being undertaken by roads at exorbitant costs.
The restructuring and subsequent concession of the former Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) was aimed at improving efficiency which had been badly affected by the aged rolling stock, dilapidated infrastructure, poor investment strategies due to lack of funds, and the accelerated persistent unfair competition between the road and the railway modes. Deliberate measures in the form of policies could have been instituted to give the railway a fair deal, which could have assisted in reducing transit costs incurred by users, and repair and rehabilitation costs being incurred by Tanroads.
The huge maintenance bill has been due to damages inflicted by truck overloading that has of late become extremely difficult to control due to poor enforcement of regulations by the officials entrusted with managing the use of the highways, or due to lack of expertise and inspection materials such as weighbridges along the routes.
Though there have been some remarkable improvements on the highways through the on-going construction of new paved roads and bridges, there is still much to be done in terms of investments that could encourage private involvement in the area, under the new public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Railway transportation
Both the TRL and Tazara have been experiencing a reduction in their impact on transportation of goods from the ports, as well as in assuming the key role on the handling of exports from the hinterland markets-- including Zambia, Malawi, the DR Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. However, the economies of these countries impose a huge demand for full utility of Tanzania’s railway network. Certainly we have not given top priority to our railways system lately for a variety of reasons.
The situation of the railways, to say the least, is pathetic.
Stakeholders who had been using the railway as the best means of transporting their cargoes have since stopped using the lines, and resorted to using relatively expensive modes, making it difficult for them to cut down operational cost margins.
Looking at their scope of services today, compared with their capacities in the mid eighties when both railways were at their prime time, one cannot hide the feeling that the TRL and Tazara are certainly heading towards a collapse, if timely corrective measures in terms of new investments are not considered.
It is high time the private sector participated fully in their ownership structure, now that we have the PPP modalities that are able to provide legal frameworks for the participation and involvement of private capital and management.
Ports
Countries like Singapore or the island of Hong Kong in China have continued to earn tremendously large amounts of revenue arising from the global demand for haulage of goods through their ports, and have managed to transform their geographical advantage into grossly attractive monetary gains.
With the case of vast hinterland for the port of Dar es Salam, which serves six landlocked nations in East and Central Africa, Tanzania should consider itself blessed to have three major natural harbours that are located along the Indian Ocean namely, Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mtwara.
The existence of inland waterways where Tanzania has established transit ports of Mwanza, Musoma, Bukoba on Lake Victoria and Kigoma and Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika, as well as Kiwira and Mbamba Bay on Lake Nyasa places the country in a unique transit position in the region cable to offer multimodal linkages across the Great Lakes region.
Roads
The national highways have lately been the major haulers of goods to and from the hinterland to the coastal ports despite their exorbitant transport costs.
Both local and regional shippers have over a longer period now been compelled to use road transport due to inefficiencies of the national railway network, and the corresponding poor performance of the inland marine transport system that act as an intermodal link.
Market prospects - Central Africa
The economies of Burundi, DR Congo and Zambia have huge business and commercial potential when it comes to transport business.
The developments in the DRC, an economically awakening giant as a result of an emerging conducive political climate that is essential for attracting investments in the country, call for the need to improve transport networks to the region.
It is therefore highly suggested that countries within the region should strive to realise their competitive edge by streamlining their logistics through the establishment of a corridor that could provide a central route, based on economies of scale that will ensure the attainment of lowest costs in transportation to all stakeholders in the region.
Despite the fact that there are many challenges and logistical huddles along the perceived critical route, the nearest coastline to or from DR Congo is definitely through Tanzania. That is through either the ports on Lake Tanganyika; Moba, Kalemie or Muliro on the western DR Congo part of the lake, as well as from Port Bujumbura in Burundi, which can also utilise Kasanga in Tanzania.
The connectivity of the port in Kasanga to the necessary surface infrastructure is being enhanced by the construction of a tarmac road linking it with the Tanzam Highway at Tunduma via Sumbawanga.
Completion of the route will call for further development of the Kasanga port into a fully fledged container terminal (water/surface), and as well provide a container station at Tunduma. Transiting through Kasanga for the DR Congo’s exports and imports will have its transportation costs reduced by a third due to the fact that a number of border transit customs clearance procedures as undertaken along the traditional route from Dar es Salaam to or from Lubumbashi via Tunduma and Kasumbalesa will be avoided.
Northern markets – Uganda, Rwanda and Southern Sudan
Of the three named states, the Tanzanian central corridor needs to be revamped, so as to tap the potential opportunities that are now emerging on the horizon. The planned railway between Isaka station to Kigali via Keza to address the need for bulk haulage of mineral deposits both from Rwanda and Burundi is essential. The railway line could also open up the rich north eastern DR Congo to the ocean via the proposed railway link.
On the other hand, there have been oil discoveries in Uganda, which calls for the need to improve our relatively shabby infrastructure ahead of the anticipated exportation requirements. In either case, the proposed railway line from Tanga to Musoma via Arusha is strategically vital. Despite being still on the drawing board, a number of environmental concerns are yet to be fully addressed with reference to the fact that the railway line will cut across the ecologically sensitive Serengeti plains.
An alternative route is being suggested for Uganda cargo transits through Mwanza and along the central corridor to or from the Dar es Salaam port to avoid the environmentalists’ concerns over the Serengeti ecology.
The route via Mwanza will be able to compete for cargo, not only from Uganda, but also to and from the newly mandated oil-rich republic of Southern Sudan, which is also contemplating joining the ranks of the East African Community. The author is a transport economist, researcher, and a chartered member of CILT – Tanzania.
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